Guardian Angel (working title)
by Omnikrystal
Summary: Krystal's home, people, and civilization has reached a level of sophistication of humanity's wildest dreams. Cerinia is a planet that aspires to spread its light throughout the universe by sending its children out to the stars. But the universe can be a very dark and dangerous place. What will happen once Krystal leaves?


Author's note:

I've waited too long to publish this. Feel free to leave any constructive feedback for me in the comments. I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 1**

The mind of the fiery bird strained against the pressure of burning beams of intense thought. As he sat upon his stone pedestal, he let visions of the universe wash through his mind in the best ways it was able to interpret it, having never seen the world through the lens of a working pair of eyes. Where he let his perceptions wander, attention was drawn from both malevolent and benevolent forces. Grateful as he was for the offered assistance of those who wanted to protect him, he needed to see what the next group of star-trotting light warriors to leave the planet were going to be faced with unobstructed.

Two ethereal presences stood out among the countless others he had made contact with. Shivers ran through his spine as he saw the dark and ominous mass the first presented itself as. It was curious and brilliant, but ravenous and ambitious, indulging in a selfish, careless, and hostile hunt for knowledge. Its mind took on an appearance as a mass of darkness radiating powerful psychic energy with a pair of ominous yellow eyes. They seeped with relentless focus and determination. It bore no respect and little mercy for anything that dared slow it down, or obstruct any of its whims. It grew, spread, and evolved like a virus.

The other one appeared trapped, in that it was unable to deviate from a predetermined set of paths. It was cold and unfeeling, a partially transparent figure wrapped within rings of force similar in perception to powerful magnetic fields. What fractured bits were left of a person, screamed from under a veil of artificial perfection and control, and a devastating loop of hateful residue.

Having seen enough, the great avian let the two of them go, and brought into focus the soothing light of kinder consciousnesses to his mind.

He took a deep breath and let out a sigh, beginning to make his prayer as his gold plated wings formed slow sets of mudras.

We do the best we can to spread seeds of light as children of the all. As the future is not bound in stone, but is ever changing, one never knows if all sentient life will join the true light. Our efforts may never be enough. But I hope the ones I send will reach you.

"The wondrous void, dotted with brilliant lights" he recited aloud, recalling the simple, yet endearing words of a passage detailing a long passed writer's rudimentary perception of the universe. It was one which he sometimes reflected on for sentimental peace of mind, and inspiration to grow and help others do the same.- "the gathered mass from the dust of fusion, systems that string and pack together the same sets of elements countless times to assemble nearly infinite combinations of systems, it is all we are, yet it leads to constructs both mighty and diverse, capable of setting the mind in awe...

Liquid mass, messes of chemicals, and a supply of energy can lay the foundations for life.

Once life breeds sentience, and sentience evolves to sapience, it brings forth exponentially growing changes.

Creation, destruction, love, fear, curiosity, ignorance, wisdom, insanity, the mix of it all can lead to ruin, or bestow enlightenment in minds that find clarity and compassion. When the loneliest of souls need a guide through the strife and chaos, they can try to find their guardian angel, the reflection of the most vulnerable parts of their mind given form, as a tool to repair oneself. With time, they might just find their truth, see the natural order in the chaos, and find light where our perception tells us it is most hidden."

The seeds of light I spread shall find you. Open your eyes, your mind, and your heart, release your hate and fear, and let your pain go.

Chapter 1:

The vast expanse of space visible to the naked eye was reflected in a transparent pool inhabited by a group of shimmering fish.

The only sounds disrupting the silence were the rushing water of the falls, the ocean in the distance, and the whispers of the gentle breeze. In a patch of grass surrounding a glistening pond, fed generously by the churning water of the trickling stream, a shapely and lean young vixen lay in the vestiges of peaceful sleep. Her fur was a cobalt blue, save for the pristine white of her face and stomach, and the tip of her fluffy tail, which was divided in three sections by two golden rings. The whites of her fur glowed in the light of the moon, and the contours of her face naturally radiated a sense of serenity, mystique, and wisdom.

As her thoughts began to stir, she could feel her brain activate in small bits at a time, and began to reflect on the experience bestowed on her by her dreams, while relaxing in the soft grass.

She reflexively reached upwards and tapped the edge of a soft metallic ring surrounding her like the bottom edge of a tent, melting the bubble membrane she had surrounding her to protect her from weather and insects.

As soon as she did, the warm tingling sensation from the energy and elements of her surroundings sent pleasant shivers through her body.

If Cerinia had a way of telling her children she loved them, this would be it.

She inhaled deeply as she stretched her arms over her head, her bluish-jade eyes gradually taking in bits of multicolored light, opening and shutting just slivers at a time as they began to widen. Finally, they had gained enough energy to sustain a gaze at the celestial color scheme laid out above her. Shades of reds, greens, blues, and a number of others in between, stretched in gaseous ribbons and clusters over a star dotted black blanket.

Krystal's eyes fell closed once more as she let her senses flow to her limbs, evaluating her internal energy, and feeling the weight of residual fatigue and soreness clustered in various spots on her body.

"I guess yesterday was even more strenuous than I thought."

Feeling the life in her limbs and core, she dawned a relieved smile. "But it seems like that won't be a problem."

Taking a deep breath, her nostrils were instantly flooded with the salty tang of the ocean breeze, filling her with the energy of the ion charged particles. An exhale, a few seconds of stillness, then another full breath, and she was able to detect the subtler scents of the grass she lay in and the flowers and trees around her. Finally, the third deep breath brought the welcome scents from near and far of those she knew and loved. Each breath brought a new wave of life and energy into her body until she could act beyond the restraints of her fatigue and move freely. The restorative tri-breath technique. She had used it countless times since she discovered it, and always found it helpful.

Once her limbs were recharged and her mind was clear, she sprang from the ground in a kip-up, landing squarely on her feet.

At the nearby brook, the vixen began to take handfuls of water and bring them to the snowy fur of her muzzle, drinking the cool, refreshing liquid and enjoying the taste of the nutrients it held.

I don't understand the mentality of the people in Safira Pilseta. I can't believe they would rather sleep in those bioglass structures than out here. Then again, not many are lucky enough to find a scowle as nice as this.'

Once she had drunk her fill and eaten a few handfuls of food from a box of snacks buried just up to the brim in a hole next to where she slept, her eyes drifted toward a dozen, thick pegs protruding from a tree nearby. As she looked over four of them on one side of it, adrenaline rushed through her body and her instincts spurred her into a fighting mood.

She visualized herself as a mighty predator for just a few seconds as her mind focused on her target, beginning to see only it as the rest of her vision blurred. She zigzagged toward it, moving sometimes on all fours, and pounced toward it like a tiger, only coming back at the last second when her rational mind forced her to land the jump in a proper stance with a simultaneous block and strike on the pegs, attacking it like a true martial artist instead of a savage beast.

The soft sound of a tiny gong rang from inside the dummy as she then calmed down and took her stance in front of it, lining herself up parallel. She hit the pegs with the edges of her forearms, then continued with a reversal and similar strike to the opposite side of the pegs as part of the forms she knew.

It's said sometimes that an unchanging routine can be bad for the brain, but good for the body, but Krystal's routine integrated growth in both. Her limbs had been through these movements so many times, that they needed only the slightest of guidance to perform their martial dance. Each strike caused a loud clack from wood hitting wood, and emitted the sound of clicking clockwork. This dummy was rigged in such a way that each correct strike triggered mechanically operated mallets that struck a set of bells and chimes inside, starting with the gong, then playing a song she once thought she had composed herself. Now she had to put up with the sound of her own unoriginality every time she trained thanks to her subconscious mind regurgitating what it already knew.

She had spent hours planning, crafting, and assembling, and only realized after the fact that the song it played was a derivative piece of an ancient song, the mantra of Avalokitshvara.

So beautiful, yet so unoriginal.

It was a repetitive struggle for her not to chastise herself for it.

I need to stop procrastinating, and restructure the pieces that play this blasted song.

After forcing her mind clear over the confusing mix of pleasant sounds and negative feelings she bore, and completing the first thirty movements that concluded her warmup, she paused with her palms touching the tips of the pegs. Taking a deep breath, she sank deeper into her hips, bringing her focus to the center of her body. After a few moments standing meditation, she could feel each and every electric pulse in her body, every pump of her blood through her veins, every brainwave that blossomed in her head. With her entire body now unified and functioning in synchronization, she could now increase her speed with little loss in technique and power. She started her routine again, this time the speed of a few of her strikes and footsteps rising to the point that her limbs and torso flashed in and out of visibility to untrained eyes, as though being viewed under a strobe light. It was her aim to make each movement as efficient and precise as possible. Her feet began to dance around the dummy as her advances, retreats, and sidesteps let her access the targets from different angles.

For just a brief moment, her mind began to wander, and her body began to get sloppy, when suddenly, she scraped her fist over a nasty bruise, wincing and yelping in pain.

She shook her arm, and forced herself to continue. Eventually slowing to a halt, she finished with her palms facing up on the tips of the top two pegs, then retracted into her cool-down stance and clutched her forearms, massaging her injuries from the previous day.

Her ears twitched and swiveled around as she detected new sounds and presences. Her jaw went just slightly slack as she sucked in the air, tasting the faintest hint of a pair of familiar scents. She then closed her eyes and relaxed her mind, feeling the energy of two familiar people.

They're here.

She looked upward once again toward the colorful ribbons of gas and stars in the inky sky, and felt the subtle changes of speed and temperature in the brisk wind.

It's time now. I guess I'll greet them.

She reached out to the top of the dummy and drew out a long wooden flute concealed in one slot and unhooked a flexible synthetic staff from the side.

Stepping back, she brought the flute to her lips and the staff behind her back in a swift swishing motion, and breathed into the first hole in the flute, causing a soft whistle to emanate from its end. Her fingers began to move across the holes, playing a soft melody resonant with her feelings toward the nature surrounding her.

She paused after a few verses. As if in a greeting and response gesture, the sounds of taut strings across the curved beams of a Celtic style harp began to emanate from a short ways away, repeating sections of her own melody, but with their own unique twist.

Her eyes slowly rose and drifted to her right. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a female Akita Inu emerging from the dense hanging foliage. Her eyes were closed, and her face bore a look of tranquility. Something Krystal knew was not her default facial expression, but it was what she and her closest friends had in common while playing. Her garbs consisted of a wide, white strip of cloth which hung in slight angles and smooth horizontal folds, wrapping around her chest and upper torso, and a white wrap around skirt that hung to her ankles, leaving her white stomach and lower back bare. Her fur colors were white and gold like a ray of sunlight through mist. Her figure was slightly on the thicker side, yet still feminine and lean. Toned and muscular in a way that would be more obvious felt than seen, and given volume by her soft and fluffy coat.

The white wrapped shins and sandaled feet of the golden canine gradually stepped towards the waters edge.

Krystal's mind slipped into a relaxed state as she painted pictures in her mind, translating the sound of the harps strings to the view of the land when the light of a sunrise overtakes the darkness of night. She liked to think that this sort of sound had the power to calm hearts and luminate the minds of those who had succumbed to the darkest parts of their being.

In the darkness of the trees, a silhouette observed the duo in silence, gripping the branches tightly enough to move smoothly and quietly without rustling the leaves at their ends. The shadow began to shift on the branch supporting its weight as the sound emitting from the two below him prompted him to partake in the audible tapestry.

The intermittent gleam of a wooden violin bow being drawn from it's harness shone under the moonlight in scarce flecks under the cover of the leaves. Resting the taut strings of the bow on those of the instrument, they began to move back and forth, singing on each pass across the cords and blending seamlessly with the other sounds.

With the introduction of the third melody, overlapping with the chirps and hums of the flute and the strum of the harp strings, the sounds flowed together like rain feeding a stream, growing into river, and now glistening in the rays of sunlight as it flowed alongside rich soil and thriving foliage it fed.

Krystal raised her eyes toward the stars once more, finding herself just in time to see the multitude of streaks of a meteor shower.

Oddly coincidental, yet very fitting, she thought. Once the display of lights ended, the song too faded and vanished like a candle flame in a small gust of wind, leaving only tranquil darkness and silence.

Krystal closed her eyes and sat in the grass with her legs crossed, inhaling deeply as she basked in the atmosphere around her.

We need to leave soon, but I need a moment.

She closed her eyes again as she took in a second deep breath, letting her shoulders fall limp, and her hands rest into her lap, palms facing upward.

From beyond the darkness of her sealed eyelids, the steady sounds of footsteps over softly crunching grass drew closer for a few moments, before the slightly louder crunch of folding legs into a seated position sounded next to her.

She opened her eyes again as she felt a pair of gentle arms sneak their way around her torso and lock together under her left arm, tightening slightly and pressing the body of the Akita inu against her shoulder. Krystal wriggled her arm free and returned the embrace, sitting in silence for a few more moments as she listened to the sounds of the chirping and croaking of small insects and jungle wildlife.

"You caught me off guard… But you're so soft I don't care." Krystal began. "Good morning, by the way."

"Good morning? Is that it? You sound bored when you greet me like that. Can't you give me a little enthusiasm?"

Enthusiasm? If you say so.

Accepting her challenge, Krystal cleared her mind, focused her energy, and sent her a telepathic thought so powerful, it sent the canine reeling in shock.

GOOD MORNING RYLA!

She jumped in place, suddenly gripping her head as her eyes rolled back in their sockets.

"AUGHh! Are you trying to make my head explode?"

Krystal chuckled mischievously.

"You asked for an enthusiastic greeting, so I gave you one."

"Yeah? I'll show you an enthusiastic greeting!" Ryla responded as she leapt onto Krystal and pulled her into a grappling fight.

The two rolled across the grass grabbing each others arms and legs, each trying to wrap their limbs around the other's neck or force the other into a submission hold. Finally, Krystal managed to pin Ryla down on her face, arms forcibly crossed under her chest.

Upon straddling her back and pulling her arms tight, she noticed an unusual shine coming from the wrists of the canine struggling underneath her.

She leaned in close to examine them and found a silvery band with an aurora shimmer wrapped around one arm with a center displaying some familiar patterns, while the other had an obsidian black gleam with a pinkish red quartz crystal set in.

When did she get these? The vixen pondered.

Suddenly, the weight of her body was launched sideways as her previously immobilized prisoner tilted her shoulder down and thrust her hips into the air, throwing off her captor.

I made a beginner's mistake. I got distracted. She thought to herself, when suddenly, her arms were grabbed and dragged into a trap like a wire caught between a pair of turning gears. Her head was now squished between Ryla's breast and her own shoulder.

"Gotcha now! Ha ha ha!" The canine gloated.

Curiosity consumed her attention as Krystal struggled in her vice grip to get free.

"Where did you get that?" She managed to telespeak.

"Where did I get what?" She replied.

Taking the canine by surprise, Krystal twisted off Ryla's arms, shoved the canine onto her back, and rolled onto her feet, brushing off the debris from their struggle.

Ryla sat up and lifted her arms to display the shining bands.

"What, you mean these? Kadjrei gave it to me yesterday."

Krystal's eyes widened, feeling a small pang of jealousy enter her heart as she responded with a slightly more passive aggressive remark than she meant to. The proud owner of the gleaming jewelry ran her claw along the inside of one of the overlapping rings in the center of each of the two pieces.

"He took the time to go all the way to Safira Pilseta for that? Did he materialize it or just buy it?"

Getting a glare back, Ryla replied rather sharply.

"He said he made these. By hand." She emphasized.

The vixen's eyes lit up even further.

"Are you serious? Let me see that." She said, moving to get a closer look.

As she examined the light-colored shiny band, the complex prismatic surface finish and circular display with detailed fractal patterns in the center caught her eye.

It's so intricate and colorful. It changes as it's turned too. It looks like he based the overall design on some of the patterns we know from sacred geometry.

The colors had a silvery blue base, but the aurora glimmer from each of the microscopic varying tessellated patterns on the surface texture from facet to facet created a breathtaking mix of ancient and futuristic styles.

How true to Cerinia's standards.

The other one was much more minimalistic, choosing to go for a sleek, flowing appearance, only showing any complexity in the naturally grown crystal in the center.

"If he really did make these by hand, I don't think it could have taken him less than five or ten hours of work."

Krystal continued to analyze the designs of the pieces out loud while the canine's thoughts changed focus, and she began turning her head around to survey the area.

"Speaking of which, where is he? I expected him to be here by now." Ryla cut her off.

"Were you not able to hear him? He was playing violin with us not three minutes ago!" Krystal thought.

"I know where he is, I meant why hasn't he come down here yet?" She responded.

Krystal thought about it as her pupils slowly moved to the corner of her eye. Her gaze lingered on the tree behind her, and as she caught a suspicious gleam from the shadows of the branches, she snickered as she slyly said:

"Oh, I guess he left. Well now we have some time before he gets here. I guess I'll just get changed."

Catching on, Ryla contributed

"Yeah good idea! My clothes are also a little bit dirty. I guess I should wash them in this stream."

Krystal perked her ears up and peered backwards out of the corner of her eye, checking for any sounds or signs of if any eyes or movement were visible anywhere. Finding none, she continued.

"Oh, I almost forgot! I have a really big surprise planned for him later! It's a big secret, so make sure you don't tell him okay?"

"Really? What is it?"

Krystal beckoned Ryla closer and whispered gibberish in her ear, much to the canine's mock surprise.

"But Krystal, that's dangerous! Are you sure we should do that?"

The conversation continued back and forth in a similar nature for a minute before Ryla decided nothing was working and interrupted the exchange.

"Alright, I've had enough."

In a swift dash, she leapt over to the tree and began shaking the thick trunk vigorously, causing the upper branches to flail wildly.

To her surprise, nothing fell out except sticks and leaves before Krystal pulled her away.

"Stop! You're going to damage it!"

The two walked away in temporary resignation, contemplating what other tactics they could use.

"Dang, I guess it's true what they say." Ryla mused, "Cats are proud, stubborn, and unpredictable. Once they climb a tree, you have to wait for them to come down on their own."

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" Came a voice from above them.

The two women turned their eyes back toward the mass of thick leaves and branches, as a silhouetted figure leapt from the cover of foliage flipping through the air, and landed almost kneeling with his palm touching the grass. Once in closer view, it was apparent that the silhouette was no less of a shadow in close proximity.

He was covered from head to toe in a loose-fitting, hooded outfit resembling a cross between a black mantle and a shinobi shozoku. As the figure stood up, the slight glint of a black goggled mask hiding his eyes reflected in the moonlight.

Krystal chuckled.

"Dramatic entrance. I was wondering when you would decide to join us."

The figure reached toward its head and pulled the goggles off, revealing the upper half of the green furred face and deep brown eyes of a relatively tall feline tom. In the faint light of the crescent moon, one could just make out portions of the dashing features of his face, and twin tattoos around his left eye in the shape of five black teeth from a circular saw. One set pointed outward just above his brow, and another pointed inward below his eye.

"Hello you two." He said, bowing deeply, the edges of his lips softly curled upwards under the cloth mask covering his mouth.

"Good job with those teases by the way. I actually almost fell out of the tree a couple of times." He chuckled.

Ryla promptly trotted over and threw her arms around the feline, eliciting a small blush and purring noise.

"Thanks for the bracelets again."

"N-no problem." He stammered.

He gently broke the embrace as he reached to take the cloth cover off of his mouth.

"Whew, it smells like my breath under this."

As he pulled the mask from his mouth, his gleaming icy white colored jaw and throat was revealed.

Krystal casually walked up to him, holding her arms behind her back.

"When did you get here exactly?"

"Around half an hour ago. Honestly, I was just waiting around just outside for you to wake up. I decided to hide in your tree because I accidentally pissed off a weaponized genemod."

Krystal furrowed her eyebrows.

"And you couldn't defeat it? How big was it?"

"Almost the height of your tree. I figured I would ask the two of you for help after you woke."

Ryla looked bashful for a second, but as Kadjrei's words registered in her mind, her eyes lit up and she skipped once in place with excitement.

"Was it one of the edible kinds?"

Kadjrei crossed his arms.

"I hope so. If it's not, we could just blast it. It did smell like shellfish though, so I'd say, yeah! Most likely."

Ryla turned to grab Krystal by the shoulders and began shaking her vigorously.

"Krystal! We might get to eat a bioweapon! I can't believe it, we haven't gotten the chance to taste one in months! I mean, we could get the synthesized kind, but the good stuff is expensive, and there's just something about the cheap knock-off brands that's not quite as good as the real thing, you know?"

Krystal dismissively shook her head and gently removed Ryla's hands.

"Calm down, we haven't caught it yet. I also need to get my staff ready if we're going to go hunting fifteen ton beasts."

Kadjrei nodded.

"Good idea. Ryla, do you need to do anything to your katara?"

In response, the canine drew her weapons, and pressed a button on the center of both hilts. The twin punch daggers began clicking like clockwork, shifting and revealing mechanical insides as the blades grew broader and longer, much more adept for killing larger animals. She squeezed each of the handles twice, causing them in time to expand into a flower of three blades, and retract into one.

"That's all I can do with what I have right now. What about you Krystal?"

By the time she had finished her sentence, Krystal had secured a large, scalpel like blade to the tip of her staff, twisting it and snapping it into place with a magnetic rotatable lock. The blade hung in the air a centimeter away from the main shaft, the two sections bound together by invisible force as strongly as a steel bar.

"I'm ready." She said, taking a few practice swings.

"Awesome." The canine replied.

By the time the two women had turned back to Kadjrei, his own nunchaku had been outfitted with a dragon talon sculpture on each of the tips, each one sporting a set of claws sharp and sturdy enough to penetrate a thick organic shell, assuming the particular target had one.

His sharp brown eyes glinted faintly in the ambient light, as he looked toward the other two in anticipation.

"Well, our walking pile of filets isn't going to get killed and cooked until we get there."

Ryla bowed and swept her hand in a gesture to cue his departure.

"Lead the way, genemod pesterer."

Kadjrei snorted at the remark and turned to the walls of the scowle, sprinting towards the edge, but halting in his tracks before he reached the wall, his feet digging small trenches in the ground as he skidded to a stop, then snapped his fingers-

"I just remembered!" he said, turning around. "I have something for you as well Krystal."

He reached into the fabric behind his neck, and lifted out what appeared to be a small chain of golden spheres with a sharply cut ruby dividing them in two, the ends of which hung from a gold and brown semicircular band.

As he approached her with the item resting in his upturned palm, Krystal felt a soft rush of emotion. She usually didn't care about material things like this, but something about this was different. This was far more genuine and personal than a store bought bauble.

"You and your petty jealousy. Did you really think I would make a gift for Reila and not you? I finished this at the same time as her bracelets!"

He lifted the elegant band and moved to fit it over her head as she bowed to allow it.

Once it was secured in place, it gently hugged her head, comfortable enough for it to feel as though it naturally belonged there. She lightly squeezed the armor plate on the back of her arm, and a wave of ripples in the air like those of heat waves reflecting light from distant black top surfaces appeared in a circular shape in her palm. As she saw her reflection, a smile formed at the edges of her lips. Something about this piece of jewelry seemed to compliment her appearance perfectly, as though it brought out the glow of her fur and emphasized the mystical and radiant features of her face. Internal giddy joy bubbled up in her chest as she turned her head back and forth to assess herself.

Ryla approached Krystal, and caressed her fingers over the chain of golden beads draped across her forehead, jaw slightly slack.

"It's beautiful on you."

Krystal shut off the reflection and threw her arms around the tom's torso, squeezing tightly.

"I love it!"

A few moments later she felt his limbs go limp, a soft rumble coming from his throat, and his body heat beginning to rise, and she decided to let go before he was rendered immobile. Just as she did so, she saw his arms almost in a position to return the embrace. He immediately shook off the look on his face as she backed away.

"Y-yeah, I'm proud of that piece. Enjoy it."

He hastily covered his face with his mask and goggles again, eager to cover the bashful expression on his face.

"Anyway, I think it's about time we get going. If we want to get a head start on collecting food for the Granita Palače gathering, we don't want to lose the trail of our prey."

He turned to the wall of the scowle once more, and took off straight towards it. Krystal and Ryla exchanged a look before following in close pursuit of him as he began his ascension toward the level ground overhead, kicking off the rocks and moss covered walls in ascension. Together the three bounded out over the edge and sprinted into the dark jungle before them, expertly navigating around the dense vegetation and natural hazards.

As the three relaxed into their acrobatic free-running pace they began to send thoughts back and forth to one another, talking about the casual details and nuances of their daily lives and personal feelings in a friendly chat.

It required only a small portion of their brain power to follow their muscle memory to let the tips of their feet bounce off the tree trunks and the forest floor as they wove through the humid and monstrous labyrinth of vines, carnivorous plants, and towering trees, pausing every so often as their feline guide stopped to check for signs of their prey.

Ryla drifted closer to the feline in her run as curiosity and foresight began to nag at her.

So what kind of genemod are we dealing with?

She spoke in silence.

He stopped in a small clearing for a break as he took time to drink some water from a tube running into the pocket dimension behind his neck and recall what he saw.

"Not sure. I didn't get too clear of a view of it. But it had the delicious smell of shellfish wafting off of it. When I tried to hunt it down, I ended up angering it instead. Before I got then, I thought it was just a piece of easy prey that wandered too far onto shore."

"Do you remember anything significant about it at all?" Krystal asked.

Kadjrei shook his head.

"It happened so fast, I don't remember what I did to get it so riled up. All I remember is that it just appeared out of nowhere and I had no choice but to run. The damn thing smashed a boulder to pieces and nearly took my head off."

Ryla's eyes widened in exhilaration and anxiety.

"Ooh. I'm glad you didn't approach it alone then. How do we kill it?"

"Eh, if you want a strategy from me on this, it's not going to be clever or involve the math that we use in war. I prefer to leave the thinky-think stuff to Deep Blue."

Krystal began to feel a tickle of pride rising in her at his nickname, when the words of her master echoed in her mind:

"Be careful Krystal, self indulgence in the knowledge of your strengths can be self-destructive if you let it run amok. Having high self-esteem is healthy, just as long as you don't let it blind you to your potential for improvement."

It took every ounce of her willpower to stop herself from going into a silent frenzy of pompous self-praise at comments like that. But how could she stop? She truly was more brilliant than most. Wasn't she?

She shook her head, trying to wave the thought away. Regardless, he did have a point. Krystal was the one her friends turned to when they needed a thinker, so perhaps it was time to put that skill to work.

She shut her eyes and bowed her head, going into a trance, and letting the world melt away.

Kadjrei said the bioweapon smelled like shellfish, it was around the height of the tree in my scowle, and that it came out of nowhere. How could it take him by surprise if it was so big? It would have to make noise being that size and moving through such a dense jungle right?

If it smelled like shellfish, it was most likely a type of marine life even if it uses tasty aromas like that as a lure for prey, especially considering there haven't been new sightings of large bioweapons on land lately.

Might it have other characteristics of sea creatures? If it actually did come from the ocean, it would explain everything I know about it so far.

That leaves the other part of the question, how it was able to take Kadjrei by surprise? A creature that big wouldn't likely move quickly and quietly enough that his sharp senses couldn't pick it out. It's more likely that it was hiding until he got close to it. And what's the most effective way I know of hiding that marine life uses?

Krystal's eyes shot open with the realization, about to tell her friends what she thought of, but stopped short as the smell of seafood began to fill her nostrils.

Her fur stood on end as she felt a surge of primal killing intent erupt from what she thought was a massive boulder surrounded by a cluster of trees. At this point, she knew it was too late to warn the others and plan.

In a swift motion, she grabbed the two of her companions by the backs of their clothes, and threw them out of harm's way as an explosive snap and wave of wind battered their bodies from where they used to be. With a loud crashing sound, the thinner tree trunks in range of the attack were smashed to wood chips.

Reacting to her throw, Ryla tumbled and skidded across the mud on her palms and feet, while Kadjrei snagged a low branch with his weapons' claws, anchoring himself on a nearby tree. His eyes and ears rotated towards a complex behemoth. It had risen into the air on a set of massive crab-like legs coated in a mossy skin.

His eyes darted over it for half a second before it's body quickly took on the texture of rock and tree bark again, becoming invisible to the eye of one not seeking it. He leapt down behind a cover of underbrush, readying his weapons and cautiously advancing, getting as close as he could behind whatever cover he could find.

It twisted towards him, and a chill ran up Krystal's spine as she sensed what was about to happen.

She made to dash forward, trying to get to her feline friend before it could strike him down.

CRACK!

Krystal froze, fearing the worst. As she heard a pained screech from the monster and observed the scenario more closely, she saw Kadjrei holding both of his talon adorned nunchaku, the chains wrapped around each other, with one claw set digging into the creatures soft underbelly, and the other nunchaku holding back an organic, saddle-spring loaded club, shot from beneath the creature's body.

Kadjrei smirked wryly.

"Camouflage? So that's how you snuck up on me last time. Since you're clearly not one to take or offer mercy, congratulations, you're now going to be my breakfast."

The feline forcefully ripped both of his weapons from the beast's body, the creature screeching and reeling backward from the sting of the metal claws as drips of its blood splattered the ground.

It no longer made any attempt to conceal itself at this point, and the true colors of it's flesh were instantly revealed.

In this moment, Krystal was reminded why few lived in the wild on Cerinia. It wasn't for the faint of heart. Anyone not used to the style of life led by these three would have been living their day to day in a state of constant terror.

At this moment, they found themselves face to face with a vicious looking behemoth covered from top to bottom in a slimy skin with sections of chitin covering its torso. It sported a six crab-like arms nearly three times the length of an average person average person, tipped with sharp pinsir claws. Each probably weighed half a metric ton.

These sorts of encounters were routine for Krystal and her friends.

The first step in these situations, whenever possible, was to take their time to observe and analyze as much of their opponents as they were able. This was preferably from a distance, and before their target realized they were there. The more time they had, the better they could form a more complete and foolproof plan to complete their mission without injuries or casualties. In this moment, they had three seconds to figure out how to kill a twelve ton monster without resorting to modern-day weapons.

It was somewhere between amusing and disconcerting to think of how terrified outsiders would be to see the kinds of creatures they ate for breakfast, but Cerinians that possessed an iota of familiarity with the undeveloped land around them should know to expect monsters like this almost as a basic part of daily life. They came in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and physiologies. Most were armed, sometimes literally to the tooth with natural weapons.

Years of scientific research and genetic testing suggested that they didn't occur in nature, and experience with them suggested that they were made specifically for killing and terrorizing people with no provocation.

After all, what kind of naturally evolving creature needed to be six meters tall and covered with a tesselated chitin armor, too many limbs for practicality, and enough weapons to make lesser evolved warmongering planets jealous?

The theory that these creatures were artificial yet organic, coupled with the excessively murderous nature they exhibited, had led to their labeling as bioweapons. And now that it had acted on its instincts to kill, it would be serving the other purpose Cerinia had learned they were good for. Delectable, nutritious, sustenance.

The two women began to pick up strong thought waves from the jade feline as he silently led them into battle.

Well you two, it looks like we found our prey. Krystal, it's too bad you didn't get a chance to think of a plan. But we're here now and we don't have the element of surprise anymore, so shall we improvise?

As he saw the other two fanning out and getting ready to attack, it became evident that they had read his mind, both figuratively and literally.

Cool. Both of you start closing in so you can stab and slash at it, I'll cover you!

With that, he leapt into the fray as smoothly as a kite swept forth by a sudden gust and began weaving and zigzagging around the trees to confuse the beast. All six of its eyes were trained on him, waiting for the best moment to crush him into feline paste.

In Kadjrei's hands, the mirror-finish claws mounted on the ends of his nunchaku began flickering and flashing around his body as he spun them like a shapeshifting tornado, looking for an opportunity of his own to rip at its flesh, but mainly getting ready to ward away the Krystal and Ryla charged in. Once he was nearly in range, the giant spears and the single club not oozing with blood underneath its body began to shoot at the feline one after the other, skewering and smashing thick tree trunks, and creating a snap through the air as its weapons broke the sound barrier. The cracking sounds acted as a grim reminder that a single misstep could make him into a bloody mess.

Krystal and Ryla split up and sprinted through the foliage to flank the beast while it was distracted with its jade furred target.

She glanced at the battle between the beast and the feline with worry as the crashing and groaning of broken and falling trees assaulted her ears.

This isn't good. If he takes just one of those hits, he'll be reduced to a gruesome pulp. And if we don't act soon, all the noise this monster is making is going to attract aerial beasts if we don't subdue it quickly.

As Ryla rushed in from the beast's right, one of its eyes shot in her direction.

She leapt into the air with her trident katar poised to strike, but one of the massive plate-shielded limbs sprang out of its shelter towards the golden canine, swatting her to the ground. Before she could roll onto her back and jump to her feet, another limb with a massive crab claw leapt out to pin her to the jungle floor.

Krystal felt a rush of fear as she caught glimpses of the struggle through the beast's legs.

"Kadjrei, save Ryla! I'll distract it!" She shouted telepathically at the feline.

Krystal shifted the grip on her naginata style weapon for long range attacks and swung a horizontal slash at the closest one of the monster's legs. Two of the monster's eyes turned towards her just in time to see her blade score deep into one of its weight-bearing limbs, causing pain to shoot up it's body as a trickle of inky blood oozed out. On the other side of its body, the grip it had on it's gold furred target began to feel strangely painful the more it tried to tighten its grip.

Ryla pushed herself up as much as she could within the claw's grasp, a sly grin spread across her muzzle.

"You need to pay more attention to what you're trying to crush." she said, holding her weapons horizontally, the tips of the katars digging into the opposing appendages of the claw over her.

Another claw shot out from behind the first one, spearing the canine's shoulder and slicing open the surface of her skin. She let out a small yelp as a pool of blood started leaking out onto the forest floor.

Krystal watched through her peripheral vision as Kadjrei's eyes widened, then narrowed and intensified, his lips drawing back into a snarl from his sudden fit of anger.

"Oh, you bastard!" Kadjrei shouted as he darted to the creature's right, his claw-bladed nunchaku spinning faster than before.

The creature's front mounted melee weapons once again lashed out at the feline, trying their best to crush and skewer him. His senses went into focus knowing that Ryla was in danger, and he began to predict and outmaneuver each weapon until he passed the final spear. At this point, the only weapon in rage to strike him would have been the club he injured earlier.

A short but loud rumble erupted from the bioweapon's insides in blind rage as it finally resorted to trying to swat down the annoying cat with its front left arm, trying to stop the pest before it got any closer.

His eyes stayed focused on the main body of the beast as his hand darted into his pocket, drawing out a black egg and crushing it in his hand.

All three of the monster's eyes on the right side of its body locked onto the black garbed feline, throwing its arm down like a meteor to crush him. He darted to the side of the blow, the wind from the force of the strike blasting across his face like a burst from a hurricane, and leapt up at the creature's eyes. With a swipe of his arm, a cloud of white powder flew from his hand, coating the three eyes on the creature's right, and immersing them in an excruciating burning sensation.

The beast let out a high pitched screech, finally opening its mouth and baring its fangs, as well as another unexpected weapon. All three of the trios' eyes widened in surprise as a sharp, slimy tendril whip dripping with toxic and corrosive fluids extended from its mouth. Thrashing in it's blinded zone, it swung its branching tongues as hard as it was able, trying to slice open Kadjrei's flesh.

The green cat's eyes went wide in shock as one of the tendrils snapped through the air as it broke the sound barrier, striking his leg faster than he could respond and slicing the fabric of his clothing.

He immediately shed the outer layer of his clothes from his body and threw it to the ground, watching out of the corner of his eye as the fluid from the creature's mouth slowly dissolved small holes around the gash, saturating the area with poison.

Feeling an excruciating burning sensation from his own leg, he looked down to see the hole in his flesh slowly melting and getting wider.

"Ryla, help!" He called telepathically.

The pinned golden canine glanced at Kadjrei's wound, the sudden severity of the situation making her fur stand on end. With newfound determination, she twisted, maneuvered, and slid her body out of the claw's grip as quickly as she could. Reaching between the beast's claws for her hydra sai, she tried to disconnect the joint holding the two halves of her weapon together when the claw's grip began to tighten, bending the metal and sending pieces of the devices internal clockwork shooting out.

"No!" She shouted, watching one of the prongs on her intricate, handcrafted weapon slowly getting bent and eventually snapped off like a twig.

Sorrow and frustration began to engulf her, tightening in her throat, but there was no time to linger in regret while one of her best friends was in danger. Her eyes began darting around between the bioweapon, Kadjrei, and Krystal. The creature was blinded on its right side, and there were no clear openings for Krystal to attack without drawing its attention, and subsequently having to single handedly fight off the three, half-ton killing arms positioned on the beast's left side. The first priority was making sure Kadjrei didn't die.

She began to run toward him, but reflexively backflipped away before the three claws on the right side of its body wildly flailed about and stamped out the ground she was standing on moments ago. The deafening impacts sent clumps of damp soil flying in every direction, coating her fur and stinging her eyes.

That spot was too dangerous for now. Trying to gain some distance, she retreated into the trees behind her. She would have to find another route to reach Kadjrei.

"Krystal, can you create a distraction? Kadjrei is in danger!"

Krystal scanned the creature for a potential weakness, moving toward the back of the creature's body to get out of it's range of vision.

"I'm not in a great position to do that just yet. How long do you need?"

"I don't know, but there's no time to think of a plan, his condition is getting worse by the second!"

Krystal cursed at their luck, and clenched her eyelids shut in frustration.

"I'll see what I can do, keep it busy for a minute."

Focusing her efforts into purely instinctive combat, she raised her weapon and swung the blade back and forth, beginning to hack and slash at the base of the creature's back legs. It screeched and lashed out at her wildly, trying to make the pain stop. Krystal sprinted around behind the creature, ducking, swaying, and leaping over the swipes of its half-ton crustaceous arms. It began to back away and try to turn towards her, trying to get its front mounted primary weapons in a position to strike.

With the crashing claw arms no longer in Ryla's way, she sprinted over to the green feline, examining the growing festering hole in his leg. Kadjrei was down on one knee, weapon at the ready, while trying to remain still to prevent the spread of the acidic venom.

She scooped up the feline in her arms and rushed away from the battle, looking for a safe place to set him down and remove the poison.

As Krystal watched Ryla carry him to safety, it suddenly dawned on her that she would have to keep this vicious behemoth busy alone until Kadjrei was done being treated.

Fear shot up her spine, making her eyes go wide as the creature's legs went into overdrive rotating the main body to face in her direction.

In a state of panic, she quickly ran the same direction her enemy had begun to turn, her heart pounding as she watched pieces of the environment close behind her being smashed and torn to rubble and splinters.

Her attacker left no opportunities for her to do anything but continue to run in circles around it. As her legs went on autopilot leaping over the twisted roots and avoiding the slippery spots of mud on the ground, visions and ideas played through her mind of how she could escape or stop the attacks. Each scenario she went through ended with her dead, until an egg shaped boulder roughly thrice her size came into view. At that point, she realized her chance.

From her attacker's viewpoint, it's vixen target drew increasingly near to obliteration with each passing moment as its rapidly firing front mounted weapons drew steadily closer. In the next few shots, she would be reduced to a messy stain on the jungle floor. Turning even faster in anxiousness to end it, the organic weapon watched the vixen dodge behind a rock in an attempt to shield herself. A bad decision on her part. That cover wouldn't be strong enough. As the smashing club ligament shot forward one last time, the rock shattered to pieces, and with it, a small stain of blood covered it's club, and the small blue pest was gone.

In a thicker patch of the jungle somewhere far away from the site of the battle, Ryla stopped her trek with the feline in her arms and set Kadjrei down.

She began examining him immediately, reaching into an invisible pocket dimension hidden in the cloth strips draped over her ribs, and pulling out a portable reservoir of water and a mess of medical supplies.

"Are you feeling alright Kadjrei?" She asked worriedly, leaning him against a flat rock.

"Not particularly, that acid tongue burned a frigging hole in my leg. Kinda hurts like hell. Other than that and some possible toxic venom spreading through my veins, I'm ok."

Ryla scowled and smacked him upside the head.

"Don't sass me while I'm treating you."

She quickly tore open a package of white powder, sprinkled it on the site of his wound, and soaked it with a green fluid she had in a vial afterward. The powder began to sizzle and bubble up, binding with the acid and neutralizing it, creating a makeshift polymer sponge to absorb and clean out the toxic mixture. She proceeded to fit a hose connected to a handheld electric vacuum onto the site of the sponge, and used it to suck out the acid poison through the filter it created. Once the toxic fluids stopped flowing out of the tube, she gently hovered her hands over the site of the wound, and used her internal remote viewing abilities to search for any more infections she could have missed. Satisfied she had gotten them all, she removed the filter and cleaned off the wound. She then began examining his leg with one hand, and mixing a set of fluids and chemicals situated next to her with the other. Once she was satisfied that everything was in place, she spread a gelatinous mixture onto his wound, and soaked it with one of the liquids she had been mixing. The mixture began to expand, thicken, and harden into a tough, padded surface, completely stopping his blood loss. She finished by placing her hands with her fingers pointed inwards on the outer edges of the wound site, concentrating hard and manipulating it with her energetic senses. In her mind's eye, she saw luminous triangles made of threads of energy zipping back and forth across the surface of the patch, warping its shape into a perfect geometric fit on his wound site, and creating structural shapes that allowed for ideal adhesion and flexibility from a microscopic level. It was at this point that it had fully assimilated and flushed with his skin.

"You're all done. Get up." She said, lifting her hands from the site of her work.

Kadjrei immediately sprang to his feet, paying no attention to the seething, aching pain still in his leg, albeit less than before with the patch now in place.

"Perfect! Now that I'm not dying, let's go find Krystal."

Ryla put her fingers to her chin as feelings of worry began to surface in the look on her face.

"Oh dear, we did just leave her alone with a giant killer beast didn't we?"

"Can you smell or sense her?" Kadjrei replied anxiously.

Ryla closed her eyes and raised her nose into the air, deeply inhaling the moist air into her lungs, while phasing her mind into a meditative trance. For Cerinians, using more advanced extrasensory abilities much of the time required the shifting of one's mind patterns into different phases of consciousness. In some ways, it was the mental equivalent of bringing into focus the 3D image on an autostereogram.

For this to work, Ryla would need time, quiet, and concentration.

As she began, her perceptions of reality began to shift with her brainwaves. All the constituents of the world began to dissolve into strands in her mind and reform. Tangling and intertwining with each other into connected luminous knots and spheres of all possible forms of energy.

Just as everything was settling into place and she was beginning to make sense of the formless spacetime, she was ripped out of her trance by the sound of foliage crunching in front of her.

She frustratedly blinked her eyes open as she saw a feminine white-furred face and blue tourmaline eyes staring directly into hers.

"Sorry, were you trying to find me?" Krystal said, trying to speak as softly as she could so as not to give Ryla any more of a headache than she already had.

Ryla gripped her forehead with one hand, trying to remember how to rapidly adjust her mind back into the physical world without getting a migraine.

"Yes. A warning would be helpful next time you do that." She said rubbing her temples.

As she blinked her eyes open, she saw Kadjrei staring at Krystal with intense shock. She followed his gaze to see dark red liquid dripping out of a wide gruesome crevice running all the way up the blue Vixen's upper arm, where a great deal of flesh had been brutally ripped off.

"Dammit Krystal! I just got done fixing Kadjrei's wound!" Ryla said, getting to her feet angrily, and marching over to her.

"That better not be infected with any acid or poison, my extraction chemicals aren't cheap to make!" she said as she lay Krystal on her side and began grabbing more handfuls of medical supplies from the pocket dimensions over her ribs.

Five minutes later, the two warriors Ryla had swiftly and deftly fixed were sitting to rest, giving the new patches on their bodies just enough time to fully blend in with their skin and form templates for new blood vessels and nerve pathways in place of the ones they had lost.

"So, Krystal-" the feline spoke up first. "We didn't get a chance to come up with a plan before we went into combat the first time, because we didn't know what it was we were facing exactly. Now that we've gotten a good look at what we're up against, what do you think we should do?"

"Well, that depends. Do we want to keep trying to take this monster down by ourselves and risk getting killed for food, or do we want to take the time to recruit backup, set up traps, and take it down safely?"

"Risk our lives!" Kadjrei and Ryla shouted simultaneously.

"Of course." Krystal replied.

"Besides-" Ryla chipped in, "if we wait too long, we might lose it's trail.

"We've won fights with bigger beasts than this before. We can take it." Kadjrei added.

Krystal breathed a sigh of resignation.

"Well in that case, listen closely. I managed to incapacitate some of its senses and motor functions as I was escaping it. I have a good idea of where it will be heading now, so here's what we should probably do-."

Deep in the jungle, the lumbering behemoth's voice rumbled as it struggled with every step to force its legs to move one after the other. It had no choice but to gradually retrace the messy, broken trail it created through the trees on its way out of the water. While moving, it began altering its biochemical balance and blood flow, trying to quickly metabolize the irritating weak poison on the tips of the metal needles puncturing it's flesh. Some of them were imbedded dangerously close to some vital nerve centers, and the poison would paralyze it completely if it wasn't dealt with soon.

With all but one of its eyes out of commission due to a thorough soaking of pepper juice, the only other senses it had to rely on for navigation were its tactile, thermal, and olfactory. The latter of the three being relatively shoddy out of water.

Out of the tall bushes nearby, a pair of sky blue eyes peeked out and locked onto the moving mass of seafood.

On the opposite side, a faint glint of steel shone out from the shadows.

Ryla reached into her pocket dimensions, grabbing hold of a set of pyrotechnic explosives, and flipping the switch to activate the impact detonators.

Using her extrasensory perception to check that everything was ready, she drew the cylindrical explosives out one by one and threw them in the face of the behemoth of tasty terror. One by one, they burst into a brilliant series of bright flashes, fire, concussive booms, and smoke. The creature jumped and recoiled in surprise, sluggishly trying to swat away the barrage of bombs with the three arms on its right.

Kadjrei's head perked up in response. That was his cue.

In one swift leap, he sprang from the bushes concealing his presence, landed on the side of his target, and slashed at it's flesh with his crescent nunchaku blades as many times as he could.

One, two, three! He counted.

Blood spattered out across the ground and creature's back, hitting his clothes before gathering up into droplets and rolling off. Just before the first arm came out to swat him to the ground, he backflipped into the bushes he jumped from and waited for the creature's next move, while pyrotechnics continued to bombard it from the right.

The monster shook itself agitatedly, trying to fight through the pain and chaos and escape or stop the attacks. It's six arms crept out from their hiding places, slowed considerably by the needles irritating it's nerves. It tried desperately to grab at the sources, finding to its dismay that one was too far out of reach, and the other was prone to slicing pieces of its claws off.

Eventually deciding to trample the source of the explosives, it began lumbering to the right, legs and torso moving unevenly and carrying itself jerkily, but increasingly fast.

That was Ryla's cue. She immediately turned around and started running, making sure to hit trees, kick small loose rocks, and make as much noise as possible wherever she ran.

The sound of heavy thuds and the crunching of plants and trees behind her made sure she knew she was still being followed. She took careful measures to control her speed so she stayed at a consistent distance from her attacker, all the while dodging around obstacles, chucking more fireworks behind her, and keeping an eye out for her destination as the faint sound of rushing water grew gradually louder by the second.

Lo and behold, there it was.

With her target in sight, she reached into her rib dimension, grabbed one last giant bundle of fireworks, lit the fuse, and threw it behind her to finish the job. She smirked to herself, thinking of it as the grand finale in her personal firework show. She counted down until the detonation as she dove forward, grabbing the strongest vines and roots woven into the ground right at the edge of the cliff leading into a densely grown tropical gorge.

With the momentum her dive carried her, she rolled over the edge and swung backward as she hung onto the roots, landing squarely inside a small alcove and anchoring herself in with her limbs where she was safe from the fall, just as the sound of a massive boom rang out above her.

Her blinded, stumbling, confused, angry, and injured attacker however, had no such luck.

She curled up as much as she safely could, and braced herself as the monster, roaring out of rage, then screeching in surprise, slipped off the edge, frantically grabbing at the air with its giant claws in search of a foothold or handle to stop itself from falling.

Ryla shrieked and flinched in dread as a rush of air from the monster's thorax swinging over and stopping right in front of her shelter in the wall blasted her in the face. It had apparently grabbed hold of something above the edge and managed to stop its fall.

She began trying to kick it loose, her leg repeatedly shooting forward like shells from a cannon, making dents and breaking off significant pieces of it's tough lower shell, but still finding it futile and far too weak from her own precarious position. Her ears perked up at the sound of some rapidly approaching footsteps. They were silent enough that one had to have highly trained hearing to pick it up, which reaffirmed to her who it was, and let her know that help had arrived.

Kadjrei drew his nunchaku back over his shoulder like a swordsman preparing to strike, and with a mere two swipes of each of the sets of sickle blades, he cut the claws loose from their footholds, leaving their prey to slide cleanly off the edge and plummet to the bottom of the cliff.

Ryla gasped and frantically scrabbled at the damp walls around her as the wind from the bioweapon's fall sucked her out of her shelter. Her breath caught in her throat as she slipped out, her claws scoring deep white gashes into the stone surface. The trail stretched one and a half times the length of her body before her fingers snagged on a jutting stone. Her blood ran cold with the thought of the five story drop that waited beneath her as she hung on for dear life. She hastily tried to hoist herself up by her hands while finding purchase with her feet, slipping on damp moss and nearly falling the first time, but managing to find adequate stability the second time around. She couldn't climb any higher, but at least she wasn't falling now.

"Ryla grab on!" She heard from above her.

Kadjrei was hanging from the cliff, hooked over the edge by the tips of his nunchaku blades like a grappling hook, and holding out his other set for her to use as a handle.

Yikes, those blades are sharp. I'd better prepare for this.

Ryla inhaled deeply, concentrated her energy into the inner surfaces of her hand, and hooked it over the blade, breathing steadily to maintain her strength. Immediately, the razor blades dug into her fingers and upper palm, and it took every ounce of her willpower not to let go screaming.

Not wanting to keep her in pain or let her risk falling to her death, Kadjrei hoisted her up to the cliff edge in one smooth motion like an elevator winch, where she hastily grabbed the same roots she held onto before and pulled herself up.

She immediately checked her hand for damage as Kadjrei climbed out behind her, wincing at the stinging sensation in the stretched skin and fresh deep grooves in her fingers. Thankfully the cuts weren't serious. After shaking her hand out, she brushed the debris and moisture off herself.

"Thanks Kadjrei, if you didn't save me I don't know if I—"

Her speech was cut off as the black clad feline suddenly threw his arms around her, wrapping her up in a surprisingly affectionate and warm embrace as he nuzzled his cheek against hers.

"Thank lady Cerinia you're okay! By the way, you did an awesome job."

Her first thought was to push him away, but she stopped herself. After a few seconds, the feel of the cuddly embrace sent a tingly soothing warmth through her skin, easing her stress from nearly falling to her doom seconds earlier. Hesitantly, she relaxed and gradually returned it.

The moment was cut short when a the sound of a loud, heavy crash erupted below them.

Earlier…

Krystal sat and waited in mental tranquility and silence next to the booming white noise of a sixty foot wide river rapid, high up on the mountain nearest to the creature's projected retreat route. She watched Kadjrei and Ryla as well as their prey through her recently improved remote viewing abilities, as they prepared to resume the attack on their target.

Which way is it going to go?

After patiently waiting for a short while longer, the action started. She struggled to push her feelings and thoughts out of her mind and maintain her focus as the miniature scene of chaos ensued. Fire, miniature explosions, violence, all of which threatened to rip her out of her trance were raining on the target. Finally, she had her answer.

It's going towards Ryla. That makes things a little more difficult than I would have liked, but that's what my contingency plan was for.

After waiting a few more moments to ensure that everything was going according to her expectations, she got up and hopped over a few feet of the rushing water and onto a log secured by vines against the rough river current. In four swift swipes of her staff and blade, the log was cut free and swept up in the motion of the water. She grabbed a strong protruding branch as the log lurched forward, nearly throwing her into the water before she found her balance and equilibrium on the erratic movements of her improvised ride.

She deftly stepped over the curved surfaces to the left and right, continuously switching her grip to new branches to keep her balance, and keeping in time with the rolling of the log like a circus performer walking atop a heavy ball. The journey was smooth and swift at first, and she had little trouble staying aboard over the first few drops, but her knowledge of the landscape and river current told her it wouldn't remain the case for long.

As soon as the log began to smash into rocks and stuck debris and spin out of control, she reflexively sat on the log and wrapped her legs around the sides to avoid being thrown off, thrusting the blade of her naginata-esque weapon into the water, paddling with it like an oar to keep from capsizing.

She felt her core muscles, arms, and fingers straining under the pressure as she worked to compensate for the rough undulation and oscillations of the log while the spray of the water droplets soaked her fur and lashed against her eyes. The wind rushed past her face as the tropical scenery, still dark in the early hours of the morning, briskly passed by.

Soon, the journey became much steeper and much faster. She struggled to stay on board as the log began falling at a thirty degree angle.

The water rapids surrounding her had fully turned white and frothy.

It wasn't long before the boulders in the water threatened to crush her legs as the log bumped and scraped past them. With that, she was forced to alternate her positions in rapid succession. In the span of five seconds, she stood up and planted her blade in the log for stability, drew it out and hacked apart the hanging vines threatening to entangle her as she approached them, planted it back in the bark as the log twisted and turned trying to throw her off, and held onto the shaft for dear life as she lost her purchase.

Her feet dangled precariously from the edge for a few moments before she finally scrabbled back on board and found stability again. The log jerked in sudden deceleration, splashing water over the top as the river finally leveled out and became calm.

She fought to catch her breath while she wrung as much water as she could from her fur, the chill making her shiver as a slow breeze whistled through the few spots of thin vegetation surrounding her. She began scanning her surroundings while trying to reassess the situation with the beast.

Well done Ryla. She got it dangling from the edge of the cliff. I have to hurry, but time this right.

She began rhythmically rowing through the calm waters, steering around and slicing apart stuck debris, adjusting her riding position as necessary, and slowly navigating towards a larger pool. The sound of rushing water approached from a new source ahead, getting gradually louder with each second.

Little by little, the edge of the water creeped into view, as did the valley that the three had set as their rendezvous point.

Looks like this is my stop.

She waited until she came within range of a flat nearby stone jutting at an angle from the water before hopping off the log, and briskly pacing alongside it.

Once she reached the edge of the cliff, the monster was in sight.

Perfect.

A few moments later, the log reached the edge of its path and came toppling over the falls, rapidly picking up speed again from the sudden drop. She anxiously kept her eye on it's progress though the steeper rivers it was now progressing through, rhythmically leaping down from the wall of rocks one by one to keep up with it.

The creature at the bottom lay prone, stunned from the fall, and bleeding badly. One of its legs had been ripped clean off. Three more were broken, and large portions of its chiton shell had cracked and caved in from the impact. Still, the hearty creature lived. It was panicked, wounded, and furious, but it wouldn't simply keel over and die.

Krystal followed only seconds behind the log, watching her prey struggle to right itself. It was in the perfect position as it was. Any movement, and their job would be much harder.

She froze in fear, bounding towards it as fast as she could with her spear in hand. The prospects of success for its attempts to flip back over were looking much brighter on its part as it wobbled left and right, slowly finding stability on its arm, and making progress to flip right-side-up little bits at a time.

I have to stop it!

Krystal broke into a full sprint, trying to think about what she could possibly do to keep it on it's back long enough for her plan to work.

There was no time to design and set up a trap or mechanism with her surroundings. The only way she could stop it would be if she could apply sufficient brute force to the weakest part of its body and make it collapse again. But how on Cerinia could she do that?

Only one possibility came to mind.

She shut her eyes for a brief moment.

How does Akra do this?

Memories of her master's technique demonstrations flooded through her mind. Techniques like those that let individuals augment their physical strength through the mastery of qi. Her master had perfected the art, as had most of those in Cerinia's star system. That was, those that rightfully held the title of master. Unfortunately for her, most people in training could only do it intermittently.

I have to try.

As she closed in on the greatest load bearing appendage threatening to hoist her prey upright, she hurled her spear forward like a javelin, embedding it deep in the ground, then hopped on the end to let it catapult her forward as she shut her eyes, and took in a deep breath, sailing through the air as she let her mind go into a trance. Feeling out every part of her body, she felt her muscles twitching and pulsing from her internal electric currents, willing them to become far stronger than the average sapient life form. She felt the weight of her muscles and bones, reminding herself that the the very mass and density she had built up for so long increased her weight, but gave her strength. From right below her navel, energy flowed upward to her solar plexus, and then outward like the energy of an internal fire, the heat strong enough to make a convection current strong enough to sweep up a metric ton of scrap steel into the air. The heat spread throughout her body and reached beyond her fingertips. Once she felt electricity crackling all over her, in her palms, her arms, her torso, legs, and feet, she opened her eyes, focusing on her target like the point of a laser.

She twisted her body and drew her palms back, sailed towards the target, and let it all out in one twin palm thrust.

The power was exhilarating. She could practically feel her palms sinking into the cracking shell of the amphibious crustacean!

….. Wait, something doesn't feel right.

After working so hard to fall into the trance she had put herself into, it all snapped back to reality when she realized that the limb she struck had stayed as firmly in place as the trunk of an ironwood tree, bearing only small cracks in its shell.

NO! It wasn't enough!

A low rumble from the behemoth let her know that she was in the crosshairs of her target again. The beast once again raised its arm to bring it down on her like a hammer of judgement.

She moved to dodge the blow, when the log she rode on tumbled down the falls, smacking it dead center on its largest ganglions. And with that, its arms fell limp.

Krystal circled her target carefully with her spear extended defensively, preparing to parry any surprise attacks.

Did my plan work?

These beasts were frequently known for their infamous resilience and regenerative abilities. If she was careless about finishing it off when she tried to harvest it, it could lash out and kill her in one swipe.

She just needed to find one sign it was alive.

She looked over every minute detail of it, trying to pick out anything that would give away it's intent. Her eyes failed to notice anything, yet her extrasensory perception told her to stay back.

"Ryla, Kadjrei, get down here! It isn't finished yet!"

The two at the top of the ledge's ears perked up when they heard the call of their companion at the bottom of the gorge.

The acrobatic skills of the two kicked into overdrive as they took a route down any ordinary person would be too daunted by the danger of to try themselves without a safety harness.

Krystal watched for a few moments as the two climbed over the edge and leapt from rock to rock, flipping, sliding and swinging so quickly and smoothly down the cliff face, one could almost doubt their bodies belonged to organics.

"Whoo. That's not a pretty sight." Kadjrei thought-spoke as he touched down on the bottom and looked over the monster whose beaten and broken body was being pinned down under nearly a thousand pounds of raw wood.

Ryla chipped in.

"Krystal, I'm just as anxious to eat it as you are, but you should make sure it's dead before you start tenderizing the meat."

"Brilliant observation Ryla." she responded, rolling her eyes.

"So, what's the plan?" Kadjrei started. "Sneak attack it, set up a crazy contraption to kill it from afar, or just use our advanced weapons to finish it off since we've already gone through the hard part with our primitive ones?"

Krystal glared at him. "Kadjrei, you know better than to suggest that! Those are for emergency use only."

"Aww come on! Can't we break the rules a little?"

"I don't know," Ryla smirked, "maybe you should ask master Graciil what he thinks?"

Kadjrei shuddered for a moment.

"Urgh, fine! So what are we doing then?"

"As much as I love the idea of finishing it off with a 'crazy contraption' as you put it," Krystal began, "it will be back on its remaining legs in minutes if we don't finish it off first. Therefore it's not reasonable to try that with the time and resources we have now."

Kadjrei smirked.

"Not true. We may be forbidden from using advanced weapons, but not tools."

Krystal squinted and tilted her head upwards in consideration. She didn't think of that. And technically he was right, but that still went against the spirit of their training. Was it really right to follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit in scenarios like this? If they did use the technology at their disposal-"

"Now hold on a second-" Ryla interjected, jolting her out of her thoughts.

"We need permission from wildlife management HQ if we're doing that."

Reila shut her eyes and held her hands apart in a gentle meditative looking pose, with her index fingers pointed at opposing diagonal angles, and her ring and middle fingers touching her thumb. The other two sensed a short stream of cybernetic data pass over them. A second later, Reila opened her eyes.

"All the forms have been filled out. We have permission. LET'S BUILD A CRAZY CONTRAPTION!"

Krystal let out a sigh of resignation.

These two are insane.

"Alright, listen. I think I have a plan for something we can build, but it's going to be tricky to kill this in one shot. Its decentralized nervous system was the reason my poison needles didn't fully paralyze it, which also means it's tough to kill quickly with physical force. We need to kill it as painlessly as possible, if we don't want the flesh to be laced with epinephrine when we serve it at Marmora Stacija."

Kadjrei raised his eyebrow.

"So how do we take out all of its ganglions at once? Electrocute it?"

Krystal rolled her eyes.

"Only if either of you just happen to randomly keep roughly a cubic foot of metal in your pocket dimensions everywhere you go for no reason."

The two of them were silent for a few moments, speechless with slightly dumbfounded looks on their faces.

Krystal opened her mouth, ready to explain her real plan, that utilized materials that were actually attainable in their current surroundings, involving the collection of organic compounds that could be siphoned from the local area to make explosive thermite charges, when Kadjrei's face slooowly turned into a playful, comically over exaggerated grin as he reached into the fabric behind his neck, and drew out a solid cubic foot of aluminum with a handle cut through.

Krystal stood staring at him in stunned silence for a few moments…

She wasn't sure whether to ask why he keeps that with him at all times, or thank him for hoarding random items in his pocket dimensions.

Upon noticing some unnerving movement from their prey out of her peripheral vision, the third option, snatch it out of his hands and start molding it into the sheets she needed became the most appealing of her next moves.

As she opted to go with that, she stopped before beginning the cutting and molding processes. She swiped her fingers along the plate of her left bracer, causing the intricate dark-gold-colored, plant tendril patterns on them to shift and retract like pieces in a two dimensional puzzle in precisely the correct way for a glowing hole emitting a soft blue light to open on her armor, and a large bundle of long steel needles to levitate out, before the hole closed behind them. Krystal took all of the remaining venom-tipped throwing projectiles she had left over from her earlier and handed them to Ryla.

"Ryla, one of us needs to keep the monster down. Can you throw these into its nerve centers while Kadjrei and I work?"

"Won't that cause it immense pain?"

"The venom on these doubles as an anaesthetic."

Ryla shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, okay. I usually like to watch the results of engineering instead of partake in the efforts anyway."

Ryla grabbed the bundle and briefly strolled in a full circle around the beast, getting a sense of its anatomical structure before lazily sitting down on a nearby boulder, hunched over with her chin resting on her left paw, and began hurling the needles deep into the flesh of the beast one at a time. An onlooker with only a partial view of the canine might see how relaxed and nonchalant she was, and mistake her actions for skipping stones across a pond.

Seeing that everything was in order, Krystal turned to Kadjrei, who had already equipped his metal working tools, and had deployed a sound suppressing variant of his translucent, phosphorescent, semi-spherical membrane tent. Generally it was meant to be used to protect oneself from bugs while they slept, but this was a creative use for it.

Krystal watched as the laser-gun shaped tool secured to his arm projected a red plasma gas dome, which he drove down into the bulk of the aluminum as though it were a drill. She made to stop him, thinking for an instant he was doing things out of order, when she saw a red heat-resistant membrane mold below the block, catching the molten metal as it spilled off, and allowing it to cool in the shape of a thin sheet.

She began removing the sheets from the mold as they were completed. And with a set of her own metal-working rollers and a coat of aluminum polish, she began pressing them perfectly flat, then smoothing them out further.

Once the two of them had prepared multiple long and flexible sheets, they adhered them to slightly longer sheets of insulating cloth they had fashioned from tree sap and some particularly thin, fibrous, and flexible bark they had found nearby, and rolled them up into seven-inch-wide, three-foot-tall cylinders, with two metal sheets in each. Once each roll was finished and wired together in series, they used the remaining material on the block to melt and roll out broad thin slabs, and laid them out flat on the ground next to one another, but separated by a meter of air and grass, and resting on a flat, dry section of the ground.

Krystal wiped the sweat from the fur on her face, marvelling at their efforts.

They had efficiently used all 160 pounds of aluminum, and all they had left to do was test the connections and send a request for a wireless power transmission to charge the capacitors and plates. Out of Krystal's remote viewing sense, she found that they were getting finished just in time, seeing as Ryla was running out of needles.

She had just grabbed one of them, and was getting ready to throw it when she stopped, stood up, walked over to the beast, laying a hand on its back, feeling and prodding it.

She turned to Kadjrei and Krystal.

"I think it's dead."

Krystal's fur raised as her entire body tensed in disbelief and frustration, her gaze shooting up towards Ryla from the electrical flow passing over her hand and into the terminals she was charging, while the logical part of her mind frantically tried to persuade her emotional mind to calm down.

It had to still be alive. Those needles literally couldn't be enough to kill it! The left hemisphere of her brain asserted.

Everything Kadjrei and I just did just went to waste! The right shouted back.

"Oh wait, nevermind! It's still alive!" Ryla shouted before Krystal confirmed the same in her mind.

Ryla looked up as she heard an ominous noise, seeing a titanic crustaceous arm looming above her like the shadow of a tree, preparing to crash down on her head.

Krystal began scolding herself over the fact that this revelation gave her relief.

As it fell towards her, she confidently and fluidly sidestepped to the left, like an elusive particle of dust displaced underwater from between two fingers trying to grab it.

Yeah, that's not going to work this time. The canine said to herself with a smirk on her face.

Charging towards the beast's back once more, she began grabbing and pulling out several needles from its flesh one at a time with the technique and dexterity of the martial artist she was, and swiftly and rhythmically jamming them back in into a set of precise locations, quickly forming a planned pattern with a new set of connected surfaces.

The beasts arms became fell limp once more, but with specific needles no longer obstructing some of its nerves, it was free to once again operate its legs. At least, the ones that were left.

Krystal looked down again, focusing on her role in the plan, while Kadjrei hooked a finger into the loop of his nunchaku in the holster at his waist, ready to jump in at a moments notice.

As Ryla continued to weave her pattern in the needles, the beast's legs began to move, bringing it to a halfway-standing position.

Krystal anxiously probed the readings from her voltage meter, waiting until it had reached the maximum charge it could attain before the two plates arced.

The bioweapon was now making desperate blind swipes and stomps with its remaining movable appendages at it's canine opponent, struggling to do what Krystal imagined must feel like pinning down air. That was, if Ryla's nimble leaps, sways, flips and rolls were anything to go by. At this point, its motor nerves had begun to forge detour connections, allowing it to shakily rise to the fullest standing position it could, starting to slowly, one leg at a time, chase its prey through the chilly stream of gently flowing water over tumbled stones she had led it into.

Krystal felt the voltage climbing to its maximum.

Eighty eight percent, eighty nine, ninety!

"Ryla, lure it over this way!"

"Lure it? I'll do you one better!" She replied.

The beast tried once again to bludgeon her into a pulp with the spring powered club under its belly, instead taking a sizable chunk out of the cliff face behind her as its near blindness impeded the shot, letting her roll out of the way like a leaf in the wind, and run up the slanted ramp of one of its broken legs, pulling out two emei piercers from her rib dimensions, and repeatedly jamming them into the new makeshift nerve connections it had developed. She simultaneously began poking some of the existing needles embedded in it's nerves as she made it to the top.

Their prey fell limp once more, twitching and spasming as the gold and white canine stood atop it as if it were a giant pedestal.

She stretched her fingers and cracked her knuckles backwards with a devious look on her face as she knelt down.

"Time for the puppet master to go to work!" She whispered.

She closed her eyes, bringing energy up from her stomach, out from the center of her body, into her arms, and feeling it pool into her palms, flooding her fingers with excess qi. Looking down at the array of needles in front of her, she began tapping, squeezing, and pressing them with her fingertips like a pianist to keys, sending currents of her own energy into the beast's nerves.

Its body twitched and moved of its own accord. The beast grumbled in fear and confusion as its body began jerking involuntarily, its remaining legs slowly dragging it's body somewhere that smelled of molten metal.

The beast welled with rage, unable to stop its legs from carrying it who knows where, and prepared to strike once again. It had no means of understanding what was happening at this point, but it wanted these pests dead.

Kadjrei's eyes narrowed as the club under its belly to the far left tensed once more.

"Krystal, look out!" He shouted, grabbing her and yanking her out of the way as the club's swipe swung only just short of them, but battered their bodies and eardrums with a sonic boom, the sound wall knocking them clear off their feet. Kadjrei and Krystal reflexively did a kip up, trying to regain their senses as their vision blurred and their ears rang.

The green feline reeled from an unnervingly loud ringing sound in his skull, as he felt a trickle of liquid matting the fur on the side of his head. Upon realizing that it was coming from his ear, he drew out his nunchaku again with a newfound realization of urgency.

He zigzagged between the beast's legs, darting under its belly, and with a quick strike from the blunt shaft of his weapon, stunned the nerves that loaded the spear to the far left.

Krystal watched as he flipped and twirled in the air under its belly, using the blades at the ends of his weapons to slice through the bioweapon's tendons that it needed to reload its clubs and spears. With all of them cut, they shot out to their fullest extended positions, rendered as useless as a booby trap that had already been sprung.

Krystal stared at the beast intently, sighing in relief that all but one of its weapons had been incapacitated.

Kadjrei began to evaluate his work, making sure the weapons wouldn't repair themselves in time to attack again, while Ryla continued to wrestle with the beasts muscle impulses, slowly but steadily drawing it closer to its doom.

Krystal watched in anxiety as the beast closed in. From the sets of probability calculations running through her mind, she knew there was little to no chance of failure now, only slim odds of injury for herself and her friends. Math was often unreliable for predicting the exact actions of organic life after all, but at the very least they could predict its best possible actions and preemptively counter them. Still, the feeling of having a fleshy behemoths shadow looming over her as it slowly closed in on her position was nerve wracking.

The clank of the beasts legs against the hardened plates was the first step in assuring their victory. Beads of sweat drenched the vixens hair as the final leg lifted up and its weight shifted forward, throwing it off balance.

"Ryla, jump off right now!" She 'shouted'.

With a great feat of acrobatics, the canine leapt onto the upraised arm of their prey and jumped off, landing in the shallow water with a splash.

Kadjrei meanwhile, had rolled out from underneath, clear of the imminent fall.

The three watched with bated breath as the weight of the beast pulled it forward until a considerable fraction of its weight collapsed hard on the metal plate.

SNAP!

All in one shot, a bright flash of light arced off the plates as the capacitors dumped their charge into the bioweapon. If they had done their math correctly, then its internal organs were now partially vaporized; a considerable amount of its flesh, cooked; and its nervous system, fried.

The three began to take deep breaths as they observed the results of their work, and approached it in cautious silence.

Ryla was the first to check its vitals up close. After thoroughly palpating various parts of its flesh, she turned to the other two with a tranquil, yet vaguely somber gaze, and nodded.

The other two didn't need any more confirmation to know they had succeeded.

The three laid their hands on the great beast, bowed their heads, and began to trace a path for its consciousness to leave its body, marking its flesh with their invisible respective energies.

The minds of the three connected in a triangle of waves around their prey, and they began to feel the messages and wishes each other sent the beast off with.

I'm sorry that your circumstances and ours led us to this outcome-

Krystal began.

I hope you understand that we did what we did with no negative will at heart, and that your sacrifice, unwilling as it may have been, will go to continuing the cycle of life, and bringing nourishment to people with good will. I wish you had more choice in determining your motives and ideals, but alas, you were born programmed only for destruction. I hope that whatever soul remains of your essence after this gets recycled into a being with more freedom and a better life ahead of it.

All decent individuals know that only two reasons truly justify taking the life of another being. This instance fell into both categories, but even so, using her abilities as a sapient life form to take a life always left Krystal with a dark and heavy feeling. The logical part of her mind couldn't help but think that in light of the fact that their society was so advanced, was this method of protecting innocent civilians and obtaining food really even necessary?

With a deep breath, she lifted her hands from the body of the monster as she felt the waves of it's consciousness spike into enlightened tranquil oneness with its surroundings, then gradually dissolve and fade away, leaving only their food behind.

Krystal pressed her palms together and closed her eyes in a moment of silence. Remotely viewing her friends through closed eyes as they followed suit.

Moments later, Ryla was the first to speak.

"Alright," She quipped, clapping her hands once to abruptly break the solemn silence. "I get that it's good to 'honor our food' for giving its life for us and all, but I'm anxious to get this sucker cooked. Who's with me?"

Krystal shrugged and sighed.

"Okay. I suppose the next thing to do is to transport it to Stacja Marmurowa."

Kadjrei held his arms behind his back with his chest puffed forward as he ambled between the two women and their kill with a suave yet mildly snarky look on his face.

"So, we have a few ways we could do that. We could either cut it into little pieces and carry it there over the course of a few dozen trips-"

With a feeling of dread at the thought of that after everything they just went through, Krystal cut him off.

"Oh god NO! We are NOT doing that!"

Krystal grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him out of the way, hastily holding out her hands in the direction of their reward, and with a few quick hand gestures, a pillar of aurora colored light shot down from the sky, engulfing the beast at an angle. In seconds, the beam and carcass disappeared, leaving only a bioweapon shaped print in the ground in its place.

Kadjrei crossed his arms chuckling.

"Good call. That was going to be my third suggestion. Wouldn't want to anger the masters after all, would we?" He chuckled.

"Well we are running low on time." Krystal replied, pointing out the sky as the very first stars and nebulas of the night faded under a gradually growing veil of white rays bearing a blue tint and a gold aura.

"Oh man! We really do need to go." Kadjrei replied, pulling the claw blades from his nunchaku and storing them in his pocket dimensions, then holstering the shafts at his waist.

Ryla looked at him with jealousy, lamenting the loss of her own weapons.

The last thing to do before they left was to disassemble their trap. Once the three had discharged the remaining voltage and disassembled the sheets, Kadjrei used his plasma dome to melt the aluminum back into a cube using the same membrane trey as before, but with a different configuration, cooled it off in the water, and stored it safely behind his neck. The three then took a brief moment to rest.

Krystal now realized that it was the perfect moment to ask her question from before.

"Forgive me for prying, but I have to know, why do you keep a random block of aluminum with you everywhere you go?"

"It's my pet aluminum cube" Kadjrei replied. "I call him Cubert.

He's very useful."

From the look on Ryla's face, it was apparent that she was trying not to laugh.

Kadjrei looked to the other two.

"So, you two wanna have a freerun race back to the plaza? We have a lot of prep work to do."

"I…..have somewhere to go first." Krystal replied.

The instant she finished her telepathic sentence, the mood of the moment was shattered, and a somber look of realization dawned on the faces of the other two.

Ryla hesitantly rested a hand on Krystal's shoulder, and Kadjrei was seconds behind to join her with his palm around her other arm. Both of their gazes offered tender solace.

"Do you want us to come with you?

Krystal rested her hands over theirs, hesitating for a moment to answer as she took in a breath.

"... Yes, but I'll be okay. You might get in trouble with master Graciil and Narequia if you're late, and I really don't trust anyone else to prepare the filets right." She added with a chuckle.

The other two wrapped her tightly in their arms, pressing their soft and fuzzy faces against hers.

"Okay," Kadjrei started. "But if you change your mind, call us. We're not afraid to get in trouble over this."

Krystal felt a pleasant shiver in her spine of gratitude and delight as they sent thought waves through her mind bestowing comfort and love. She returned the embrace before the three broke apart, and Krystal slowly turned away, watching out through the corner of her eye as they began their race on different routes, dashing off without any vocal words. Ryla took the more scenic one swimming down the river, which granted an expansive view of the lush valley and ocean reflecting the earliest morning light if one were to tread the water slowly and let the flow carry them, while Kadjrei steadily leapt up the cliff face to take a more direct route to their destination.

Krystal pondered the advantages of each, thinking about how one might lose less energy from the initial climb going where Ryla went, but once Kadjrei made it through the jungle on his route, he would have a straight, downhill run to the finish.

Turning away with a deep breath and a calm sigh, she began her own trek up the cliff face opposite where Kadjrei went.

One minute later, a figure dropped from the trees at the top of the cliff face, freefalling the whole of the distance, and landing on both feet with roughly the same amount of noise as a heavy fallen leaf.

Walking to the bioweapon's indentation, they began pressing their fingers into the burnt spots of grass where the plates had arced. The figure looked up the rock face where the blue vixen had left, and with a small smile, crouched down, and shot up towards the treetops in a single leap.

END OF CHAPTER 1


End file.
